Breakdown of Orkestern kommer att ha spelat symfonin innan klockan åtta.
spela
to play
ha
to have
innan
before
klockan
the clock
åtta
eight
komma att
will (future auxiliary)
orkestern
the orchestra
symfonin
the symphony
Questions & Answers about Orkestern kommer att ha spelat symfonin innan klockan åtta.
How does the future perfect tense work in kommer att ha spelat, and can I shorten it?
It is built just like in English: the future marker kommer att (will), plus the infinitive ha (have), plus the supine form spelat (played). In everyday speech and informal writing, the att is very often dropped, making it kommer ha spelat.
The lesson says we can also use ska ha. Would ska ha spelat mean the exact same thing here?
Not exactly. Kommer att ha acts as a neutral prediction about the future (we predict they will have finished it by then). If you say ska ha spelat, it implies intention, a schedule, or an expectation, meaning they are supposed to have played it before eight according to the concert program.
Wait, isn't före the preposition for "before" a time, while innan is only used before a whole clause?
Traditionally, yes! You might have been taught to use före klockan åtta (before eight) and innan vi äter (before we eat). However, in modern Swedish, innan has crossed over and is completely accepted as a preposition of time. Hearing innan klockan åtta is extremely common today, so you don't need to strictly separate them anymore.
Does the verb form spelat ever change depending on what the orchestra is playing?
No. Because it follows the auxiliary verb ha, it must be the supine form. In Swedish, the supine never changes to agree with the object. Even if they played a plural noun like låtarna (the songs) instead of the singular symfonin, the verb would still be kommer att ha spelat.
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